Innehållsförteckning för September 2, 2021 från Cycling Weekly

We are gathered here today to witness the death of my smugness. While that’s probably not a bad thing I am just going to take a moment to mark this life transition. On more than one occasion I have been stood in a lay-by while a club-mate jangles a faulty wire in a Di2 junction box in vain, or I’ve been riding serenely as they grind uphill in the only gear their dead battery groupset can now access. And on all those occasions I have smugly thought, “And that’s why I’m on mechanical Ultegra.” But the news this week (see page 44) that the new Shimano groupset is Di2 means it’s just a matter of time – because I’m also a tart and crave the Ultegra logo on my shifters…

I fear that the success that we all enjoyed watching in the Olympic velodrome may have papered over the cracks at British Cycling. While the higher-ups are wise to focus energy on new events like BMX freestyle – these are all medals after all – the poor showing in the pursuits is a real cause for concern. British Cycling’s rise was turbo charged by being good in those events precisely because they could plan how fast they needed to go and work towards it. So for 2020 either they didn’t plan to go fast enough, failed to get to the goal they’d set or they don’t have the riders. If it’s either of the first two you can lay the blame squarely at the management. If it’s the last one,…

A New Zealand based team with an international line-up founded by a British-born NZ rider, the Global6 Cycling team is an eclectic set-up that has found its way into the starting line-up for the Tour of Britain. New for 2021 and riding at Continental level, the team has spent the year racing in Europe, most recently mixing it up with Ethan Hayter and co at the Tour of Norway. Rider-founder James Mitri, who last season rode with the Italian Vini Zabu team, rides in support of Global6’s top riders, Monaco-born Antoine Berlin and Pole Michal Perluta. Billing itself as uniting and supporting New Zealand and global talents, the team said on social media: “We can’t wait to line up next to some of the best riders in the world at…

▪ Race: Track sprints, i.e. very short efforts ▪ Aim: maximise peak power output ▪ Physiological target: muscle temperature ▪ Warm-up: 20-30min moderate effort ▪ Recovery: performance should occur as soon as possible; consider keeping legs heated between rounds ▪ Race: Hill-climbs, TTs, crits, i.e. sustained effort (<60min) ▪ Aim: increased sustainable power ▪ Physiological target: muscle metabolism and muscle fibre recruitment ▪ Warm-up: priming exercise, involving effort or efforts to raise blood lactate ▪ Recovery: 15-20min to allow restoration of immediate muscle energy stores, but lactate should still be elevated at race start ▪ Race: Stage racing, long-duration TTs, sportives (>60min) ▪ Aim: prepare for prolonged and potentially variable effort endurance performance. Psychological preparation may be more important: getting into the race headspace ▪ Physiological target: being ready without…

Not long ago, Mrs Doc and I were sitting in the queue for the ferry from Northern Ireland to Scotland. In the queue in front of us was a car with a road bike on a boot rack. “Look at the shape of this guy’s brake levers,” I remarked to Mrs Doc, pointing through the windscreen. “What exactly is he thinking with those?” The levers were attached to the bars so far up the bend that they were pointing more or less straight up. “With those there, he can’t safely use the drops at all – so he’s got no chance of sprinting, and to be honest I can’t believe it’s even comfortable for a long ride. If he needs them there, he’s got much too big a frame. He’d…

Chantal van den Broek-Blaak said she takes confidence from her win at the Simac Ladies Tour that she can contend for victory at the World Championships and Paris-Roubaix over the next month. The former world champion had vaulted into the lead on stage four and finished the final stage just three seconds behind stage winner Marianne Vos in a bunch kick to take the win home. The week was defined by crashes and poor weather, making for an attritional race where only 53 women finished after 91 took to the start at last Tuesday’s prologue. Van den Broek-Blaak said: “This is a cool win. This is a confirmation of my current form, on which I have been working hard over the past few weeks. “Another important period is coming this…

Sagan to make Euros return Peter Sagan has confirmed that he will return to competition at the European Championship road race in Trento, Italy, on 12 September. The Bora-Hansgrohe rider hasn’t raced since abandoning the Tour de France, where he suffered a knee infection that developed after a crash. Recently, the Slovak has been riding with friends and his brother Juraj (also Bora-Hansgrohe) in the Pyrenees. Trek-Segafredo manager steps back after cancer diagnosis Trek-Segafredo manager Luca Guercilena has announced that he will step away from his role after being diagnosed with cancer. The Italian, 48, said he was taking a break to focus on recovering from lymphoma, a cancer that targets the lymph glands in the body. Guercilena said: “It will take time, but I’m relieved that the team is…

STAGE 1 SUNDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER PENZANCE > BODMIN 180.8KM Not far from where travellers start the famous Land’s End to John o’ Groats challenge spanning the entire length of the nation, Penzance will host the beginning of the riders’ own long journey northwards through Britain this week. This is the Tour of Britain’s first visit to Cornwall, and it makes up for lost time by visiting many of the region’s most famous sights and seaside resorts, from St Ives in the west to Falmouth in the east to Newquay in the north. Wind might have been a factor had the route stuck to the coastline, but instead it zigzags from coast to coast and remains mostly inland, safe from the autumnal coastal breezes. That means that, despite a rolling parcours, the…

MARC SOLER (MOVISTAR) 270 Although the Spaniard is best known for his exploits in the high mountains, he’s a wily competitor and with multiple stages with 3,000m of climbing or more may be able to prise open a gap in the GC. He’s a decent time triallist too and so won’t fear the 18km against the watch on stage three. TOBIAS FOSS (JUMBO-VISMA) 24 Norway’s road and TT champion, Foss was also ninth on GC at the Giro d’Italia this year, where he scored high stage finishes on both TT and mountain days. Definitely one to watch in the big tours for the future, and more imminently at the Tour of Britain, where he is likely to prove invaluable to Wout van Aert and could even go home with a…

Five years in the making - one year longer than the usual product cycle - and following an intense period of speculation, spy shots and secret patents the Japanese component manufacturer has finally revealed the all-new 12-speed, semi-wireless Shimano Dura-Ace 9200. Not only that, but Shimano has taken the highly unusual step of launching its new second string groupset, Ultegra R8100, simultaneously. For the first time there will be no mechanical-shifting Dura-Ace option, and the same goes for Ultegra. Both are Di2 only, but it’s a new platform that uses wireless shifters, with new derailleurs wired to a battery in the seatpost. However, both groupsets have rimbrake options. Those are just the headlines. Shimano is also promising its fastest and most reliable shifting ever, improved aerodynamics, incredible stopping power, the…

In association with TIME TRIALS SUNDAY, 29 AUGUST National 50-Mile Championship (Cranage, Cheshire): Men: 1. Chris Fennell (The Independent Pedaler-Nopinz) 1:39.31 2. P. Williams (Team Bottrill) 1:41.42 3. A. Cox (Team Bottrill) 1:41.57 4. M. Smith (Drag2zero) 1:42.45 5. B. Stead (3RT) 1:44.58 6. T. Hutchinson (Team Bottrill) 1:45.02 Team: Team Bottrill 5:08.41 Women: 1. Joanna Patterson (The Independent Pedaler-Nopinz) 1:51.35 2. A. Clay (The Independent Pedaler) 1:54.29 3. J. George (The Independent Pedaler) 1:54.42 4. S. Turner (trainSharp) 1:58.52 5. L. Dant (Passion Fit Phoenix Evolution) 2:02.03 6. J. Rea (Team Kirkley Cycles) 2:02.14 Team: The Independent Pedaler-Nopinz 5:40.46 North Shropshire Wheelers 25 (Market Drayton, Shropshire): Men: 1. David Griffiths (Oswestry Paragon CC) 51.41 2. D. Williams (Velotik RT) 53.30 3. M. Booker (Chester RC) 54.01 4. T. Beardmore…

Dame Sarah Storey kicked off Britain’s dominant performance in the Izu Velodrome at the Tokyo Paralympics last week. The British team topped the medal table with six golds, six silvers and two bronze. Veteran Storey was the first Brit to claim gold on day one with a blistering performance in the C5 3,000 metre individual pursuit. She set a new world record of 3:27.057 in her qualifying ride. That knocked over four seconds off her previous best from the Rio Paralympics. The 43-year-old then took the decision to set off at an extremely high pace in the final in an attempt to catch teammate Crystal Lane-Wright. She duly did so at the 2,000m mark. The win was her 15th Paralympic gold and brought Storey to the brink of becoming Britain’s…

Former British champion Jess Roberts has announced she will leave Women’s WorldTour squad BikeExchange for non-WorldTour team Coop-Hi-Tec next year. Roberts has had a torrid first two years as a professional struggling with severe pain in the back, hip and leg. She has raced only four times this year and crossed the finish line only once. Initial investigations showed a lack of core stability was part of the cause. In a social media post in June she wrote: “Essentially, since I’d started riding, I’ve only really been using my quads and have not been able to get my glutes/core engaged and I’ve just got to a point where I can’t just use those few muscles any more.” She has been working to rehabilitate her body since she stopped competing in April.…

THE JERSEYS Race leader Supplied by Pearl Izumi, the distinctive blue jersey shows who’s atop the general classification at the start of the day’s racing. 2019 winner: Mathieu van der Poel King of the Mountains Awarded to the best climber, Skoda has sponsored the King of the Mountains jersey at the Tour of Britain since 2010. 2019 winner: Jacob Scott Points Sponsored by sportsbreaks.com, a company offering hospitality packages, the points jersey goes to the most consistent finisher. 2019 winner: Matteo Trentin Sprints The fastman gets to wear the jersey with the logo of alcohol-free beer Eisberg on it. There are usually several sprints throughout the day. 2019 winner: Rory Townsend Alpecin-Fenix DS Bart Leysen 1 Xandro Meurisse BEL 2 Silvan Dilllier SUI 3 Jimmy Janssens BEL 4 Ben Tullett…

MAX STEDMAN CANYON-DHB-SUNGOD 25 TOB STARTS: 1 BEST TOB RESULT: 9TH, STAGE 6, 2019 2021 UCI RACE DAYS: 11 We don’t know if training for a second assault on the Everesting world record – after he came up short last year – is going to be good preparation or bad preparation for this race but that’s what Stedman has been doing of late. We suspect, given there’s a hefty whack of steep slopes in the Tour of Britain this year, that it is ideal. He was fifth at the somewhat lumpy Ryedale GP last month and at the very least he’ll make a good foil to combine with team-mate Jacob Scott in an effort to outwit other teams when the road, and everyone’s heat rate, goes up. JAMES SHAW RIBBLE-WELDTITE…

According to Shimano’s figures, the new Dura-Ace groupset weighs a total of 2,438g with the regular non-power meter chainset, compared with the 2,403g of R9100 (again non-power meter). Meanwhile Ultegra R8100 weighs 2,716g compared to R8000’s 2,705g. As for pricing, again it depends on the spec, but with the power meter groupset the list price of a complete Dura-Ace R9200 groupset will be around £4,350 by our calculations. Each individual component is a little more expensive than R9100 (£4,085 at Hargroves when we checked). Ultegra we calculated to cost £3,099 with the power meter chainset, maintaining that £1,000-plus gap to Dura-Ace. Availability is from October 2021.…

Priming exercise used in research was initially designed to maximise the physiological impact of prior exercise. The performance-enhancing effects of this were discovered almost by accident. In practice, priming efforts have been added to pre-existing warm-ups, and include progressive increases in intensity followed by short sprints. Research-based priming: 3min at 0W (unloaded ergometer mode), followed by 6min at FTP (or just above). Rest for 10-20min before performance. How it’s applied in practice (British Cycling/Team Ineos Grenadiers): ▪ 5min easy ▪ 8min gradual build-up (2min blocks of increasing intensity, last 2min above FTP) – usually by increased cadence on rollers. Use large chainring, half-way up the rear cassette (British Cycling recommendation) ▪ 2min steady, 6sec sprint; ▪ 1min steady, 6sec sprint; ▪ 2min 45sec steady ▪ No specific recovery duration recommended…

Velo29 Croft Late Summer Series Date: Tues 7 September There’s a women’s race and a men’s handicap race in this first of a four race series on Croft Racing Circuit in North Yorks. Closing date: 1st come, 1st served West Kent RC 25 Date: Sun 19 September This jaunt up and down the A28 should provide a good late-season test. The mens’ and women’s course record are 48.55 and 53.53 held by former national champions Chris Fennell and Emma Lewis respectively. Closing date: Tues 7 September Birdwell Wheelers hill-climb Date: Sun 19 September This short sharp hill-climb up 10% Green Moor lane near Sheffield is sure to get the lactate levels up. A short two-minute ride will trouble the top of the results sheet. Closing date: Thurs 9 September…

A tale of time trialling from long ago. A friend of a friend was racing on the dragstrip Hatfield Peverel course in Essex in the 1970s. Draft from lorries being very much part of that game, he had one eye over his shoulder for any upcoming shelter. In that era, lorries were slower, and consequently much more use to a time triallist with a rule-bending inclination. In this instance our hero was delighted to see a truck with a trailer approaching from behind at about 60kph. As it passed he got ready to jump into the lovely gap between the truck and the trailer. Before he could do, a voice from the gap said, “Oi! Bugger off. I’m in here.” It was one of the 1970s’ most prolific time trial…